When the Trump Coup-makers Cometh

Exclusive: As President Trump prepares for his first foreign trip, the turbulent political waters around him are rising and the tidal wave of a “soft coup” may be just over the horizon, reports Robert Parry.

By Robert Parry

So what did you think a U.S.-styled “soft coup” would look like? What we’re seeing regarding the intended removal of President Trump is not that much different from what has happened in dozens of other countries, whether Iran in 1953 or Ukraine in 2014 or Brazil in 2016. This one just has a few extra American touches.

Like other coups, there are often vague and unproven accusations leveled against the target and his or her entourage. Even though hard evidence is usually lacking, “process crimes,” such as making misstatements to prosecutors or obstructing justice, are developed as a substitute under the popular saying: “the cover-up is worse than the crime.” Whatever the case, a complicit media then trumpets alleged wrongdoing into grave and impeachable offenses.

And, if you had any doubts about what is looming, you should read Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne Jr.’s op-ed, entitled in print editions “A quick end would be better,” which states:

“There is really only one issue in American politics at this moment: Will we accelerate our way to the end of the Trump story, or will our government remain mired in scandal, misdirection and paralysis for many more months — or even years? …

“Nothing could be worse than slow-walking the Trump inquiries. The evidence is already overwhelming that he is temperamentally and intellectually incapable of doing the job he holds. He is indifferent to acquiring the knowledge the presidency demands and apparently of the belief that he can improvise hour to hour. He will violate norms whenever it suits him and cross ethical lines whenever he feels like it.”

The History of Coups

As this American coup against Trump progresses, one commonality of coups around the world – whether “hard coups” of military tanks or “soft coups” of “constitutional” removals – is that the coup’s target is not some perfect human being. He or she has likely made political mistakes or cut some corners or had associates who lined their pockets.

Iranian Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh in a photo believed taken in1951. His nationalist government was overthrown in 1953 in a coup organized by the United States and Great Britain.

But the difference between those misdeeds being treated as politics as usual or becoming the stuff of “scandal” has more to do with the interests of powerful interests – a domestic “deep state” or an outside “superpower” – than any evenhanded pursuit of justice.

To say that Trump is an imperfect messenger for whatever populist message he thinks he’s carrying stretches beyond the breaking point any normal definition of the word “imperfect.” Indeed, Trump may be the perfectly imperfect messenger.

Yet, what’s really at stake in any coup is power and the direction that a country will take. In the case of Donald Trump, there appear to be several factors at play: he is regarded by many establishment figures as too incompetent and uncouth to serve as America’s President; he also defies the neoconservative orthodoxy over U.S. foreign policy; and perhaps most significantly, he doesn’t believe in the New Cold War, which will assure the Military-Industrial Complex years of expensive new weapons systems by making Russia the new/old “enemy.”

There is, of course, some truth to all these concerns. Trump is an egotistical buffoon who doesn’t seem to know what he doesn’t know. Often his brain doesn’t connect to his tongue – or his Twitter fingers. He is more a Kardashian “reality star,” saying stuff to get attention and to attract eyeballs, than a sober leader who holds his cards close and chooses his words carefully.

Though many Americans voted for him because they viewed him as a no-nonsense businessman, he was actually someone who ran what amounted to a family business without the kind of accountability that often comes with managing a large public corporation.

Puffing up his own importance, Trump even has bragged about his impunity. During the 2016 campaign, he was revealed as the kind of jerk who boasts about grabbing women by the “pussy” and getting away with it because of his star status and personal power.

So, yes, Trump is both incompetent and uncouth. But he is hardly the first president to bring unseemly personal baggage or an inadequate skill set into the Oval Office. Bill Clinton was known as an insatiable hound dog preying on vulnerable women, and George W. Bush was shockingly unqualified for the demands of the presidency.

In other words, Trump’s skill limitations were not by themselves disqualifying. With the proper advice and a modicum of self-control, Trump could have performed acceptably as Chief Executive. But he failed to recruit wise advisers and couldn’t discipline either his tongue or his Twitter fingers.

Even staunch Trump supporters whom I’ve spoken with wish he could have parked his large but fragile ego at the White House gate rather than bringing it into the Oval Office.

Foreign Policy Dissent

Still, Trump’s larger vulnerability was his failure to accept the foreign policy parameters prescribed by the neocon-dominated Establishment. He started out insulting powerful neocons by challenging their self-exculpatory narrative of the Iraq War – that it was a great idea sabotaged by poor execution but then salvaged by the “surge” before being betrayed by Obama.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on May 1, 2011, watching developments in the Special Forces raid that killed Osama bin Laden. Neither played a particularly prominent role in the operation. (White House photo by Pete Souza)

Trump also belittled some of the neocon champions, such as old-lion Sen. John “No Hero” McCain and rising star Sen. Marco “Little Marco” Rubio. It would have been a neocon dream to have the 2016 campaign a match-up between Marco Rubio and Hillary Clinton, but the former fell to Trump in the primaries and the latter lost to Trump in the general election.

But Trump’s greatest sin was his refusal to buy into Official Washington’s big-ticket Russia-bashing, the goal of making Moscow an implacable enemy that then required massive new spending on both propaganda (supposedly to combat Russian “propaganda”) and military projects (including NATO expansion up to Russia’s borders and new weapons systems to deter Russian “aggression”).

Despite his simple-mindedness (or perhaps because of it), Trump couldn’t understand why the United States had to demonize Russia when he saw many areas of possible cooperation (such as the fight against terrorism).

Trump and a few of his advisers were so out-of-step on the “Russia thing” that Official Washington developed a new groupthink that the only possible explanation was that Trump and his team must be somehow on the Kremlin’s payroll. Any alleged “connection” to Russia – no matter how tenuous or seemingly innocuous – became front-page news.

For instance, retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn’s speakers bureau negotiated a relatively modest speaking fee of $45,386 for him to address the tenth anniversary of RT, the Russian network, in December 2015, with RT even whittling down his fee – and that speech became a major cause celebre.

On Dec. 29, 2016, after the election and as the national security adviser-designate, Flynn took a phone call from Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak while Flynn was on vacation in the Dominican Republic, and Flynn later offered an incomplete account of the conversation, which the National Security Agency knew because it had intercepted the phone call.

Instead of people shrugging their shoulders and giving Flynn the benefit of the doubt, Obama’s holdovers in the Justice Department literally made a federal case out of it, invoking the archaic and virtually-never-used 1799 Logan Act (which bars private citizens from negotiating with foreigners) and then advancing the absurd argument that somehow the discrepancies in Flynn’s recollection made him vulnerable to Russian blackmail to get Trump to fire Flynn.

Then, Trump’s alleged suggestion to then-FBI Director James Comey that Flynn was a good guy who had served his country and had suffered enough – and that it might be best to “let it go” – has now become the latest argument for impeaching Trump.

In Deep Water

Whether he knows it or not, Trump is now in very deep water and has no idea how to dog-paddle back to the shore. His aides seem to think that a nine-day foreign trip will do him good, but it is more likely to make him grovel before Saudi King Salman and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, knowing that any offense that those leaders might take would simply expedite Trump’s political doom.

Trump is surely in no position to tell the Saudis to cut out their covert funding for Al Qaeda and other Sunni terrorist groups – or to insist that they stop bombing Yemen, the poorest country in the Middle East. Nor could Trump dare challenge Netanyahu on the Israeli abuse of the Palestinians, the Prime Minister’s obstruction of the peace process, and his blatant efforts to manipulate U.S. politics in favor of bloody neocon interventions across the region. Trump will be the desperate supplicant hoping for a reassuring pat on the head.

There is one – and perhaps only one – winning move that Trump has left. He could authorize CIA Director Mike Pompeo to prepare for release U.S. intelligence information regarding turning-point moments in recent years, such as the truth about the 2013 sarin incident in Syria and the 2014 Malaysia Airlines shoot-down in eastern Ukraine. [See here and here.]

If – as I’m told – the Obama administration systematically misrepresented the intelligence on those catastrophes to register propaganda gains (against the Syrian government in 2013 and Russia in 2014), the U.S. government’s internal information could shift those key narratives in more peaceful directions.

But whatever the truth is, Trump could shift his own image from a compulsive liar who disdains facts into a champion for transparency and honesty in government. He could turn the tables on The New York Times (which has set itself up as the great hero for Truth) and The Washington Post (which has fashioned a new melodramatic slogan, “Democracy Dies in Darkness”). He could point out their hypocritical lack of aggressiveness in challenging the Obama administration’s excessive secrecy.

Trump would also give his dispirited supporters something to rally around. Many blue-collar voters backed Trump because they thought he was at least addressing their economic fears of lost work and lost status, while Hillary Clinton – in their view – treated them with disregard and disdain, even calling many of them “deplorables.”

But Trump’s promises of recovered jobs were largely hollow. Whatever improvement Americans might be feeling in their pocketbooks, it is more the result of Obama’s careful economic management and the normal recovery from Bush’s Wall Street crash and the Great Recession than anything Trump can or will do.

So, revealing hidden truths – where the American people may have been misled – would not only be the right thing to do for democracy, it also could be the smart thing to do. When the Establishment coup-makers come for Trump – as they now almost certainly will – he can at least say that he tried to do something to return the U.S. government to the American people.

That might not save his presidency but it would at least elevate his purpose and possibly create some positive legacy to attach to the Trump name. As the situation stands now, Trump appears headed for a humiliating exit that won’t just strip him of the presidency but would strip away any luster for the Trump brand.

In other words, his impulsive foray into politics might not just make him one of the most reviled U.S. presidents in history but take down the Trump businesses, too.

Investigative reporter Robert Parry broke many of the Iran-Contra stories for The Associated Press and Newsweek in the 1980s. You can buy his latest book, America’s Stolen Narrative, either in print here or as an e-book (from Amazon and barnesandnoble.com). .

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176 comments for “When the Trump Coup-makers Cometh”

Kevin Beck

May 25, 2017 at 7:37 am

I have to laugh and cringe at the same time.

Every so-called wrong that is directed at President Trump is a reason to make me want him to succeed. I guess that makes me one of the Deplorables, because the Washingtonian ideas he is opposing are the ideas that have directed the nation downward. Just because someone may be a war hero/survivor does not qualify him to be a Senator. And McCain has been a Senator for too long, as he believes his ideas aren’t crazy. Or maybe he knows they are, but dare not admit it. Seeing him and his chief acolyte Lindsey Grahamnesty showing up regularly on every Sunday morning show makes me want to hurl, right before I turn the channel.

Then we have the Deep State, primarily represented by the Central “Intelligence” Agency and the Nationwide Spying Apparatchiks. It seems obvious that these two entities are doing as much as possible to expose the swamp-draining activities that are taking place within the Trump White House. These agencies should enjoy their fate of being crushed into oblivion, which they so richly deserve. Without Russia as an enemy, they have no reason for being. The CIA should have been dissolved in 1992.

agathon

May 20, 2017 at 12:43 pm

I voted for him. Then he, ignorantly or incompetently, accepted the Syria false-flag attack as presented by the Controllers.
So… let ‘im rot, along with the whole fed pig-sty. No courage (or competence?).
Still, I hope he unveils all he can, that the Swamp is shamed and imprisoned.
First target: the BS media.

James Fairley

May 19, 2017 at 10:44 pm

Right on! The National Security State has no use for Trump—that from the very beginning. Nor do we any any longer have a representative Government: it’s deep state run. Voters complicated that entrenchment this time, something has to be done. Regime change!

ltr

May 19, 2017 at 8:47 pm

The continual stream of leaks from the White House strike me as unprecedented. So much so that even after reading this fine essay I do not understand what is happening. Every word of the president is almost immediately leaked.

Che

May 19, 2017 at 4:43 pm

Sorry I don’t agree at all.

The anti Trump campaign is starting to show fatigue. Really they have been throwing stuff since election night and nothing sticks. The people behind it are not that clever, having run through the entire playbook, we are now seeing repetition ie mental Health will pop up again next week for sure. As well it has no credibility, the vast majority of people are ignoring it and not influenced at all.

The whole Comey memo thing was rushed out prematurely, I presume to noise out the trending Seth Rich story. I have had comments suppressed in various publications, because they detail Seth Rich as the likely DNC leraker to wikileaks. This narrative must be suppressed at all cost, because it kills the Russian hacking myth.

Think that through. Apart from the obvious loss of credibility, how about people like Comey who knew about the leaking, yet kept on with the hacking lie. Where does that lead?

Plus, you can tell it was rushed out prematurely because it hadn’t been thought through. In fact Comey was just thrown under a bus. If the memo is real, it was Comey’s duty to report that exchange immediately to house oversight. It’s a dereliction of duty and more to just leave it in his top drawer for 3 months. Also, Comey answered a question about this in his congressional testimony in early May. He answered very clearly that there had been no interference of any kind by Trump or the WH in his investigation. Perjury?

I think Comey being fired was the game changer, Trump is just moves away from checkmate. The deep state and Democrats are absolutely beside themselves in fear and their actions reek of desperation.
Comey was protecting the DNC and Hillary without a doubt. He had ordered a standown on the Seth Rich investigation without a doubt. With the new DOJ ready to roll, all that is needed is a new FBI Director.

All te roadblocks will be clear and you can be assured of multiple investigations into Hillary the DNC, Comey, Clapper, Brennan etc.This is start of a purge…

backwardsevolution

May 21, 2017 at 1:11 am

Che – thanks for your post. I hope you’re right! Cheers.

Jamie

May 19, 2017 at 12:57 pm

Trump is a compulsive liar and his supporters are dispirited. I think Perry is projecting onto Hillary.

mike k

May 19, 2017 at 3:20 pm

Why is it that most commenters who choose to knock Mr. Parry misspell his name? Is it because they just really aren’t paying attention to anything he has said? I think some of them just read enough to know he is not on the same page they are, and begin firing.

Solomon Kane

May 19, 2017 at 12:43 pm

A perfectly sobering piece constructed with lapidary precision – as usual from the indispensible Robert Parry. One tiny iota of additional member of Obama’s team who deserves far more credit than he has already acquired for the failures of the administration: Rahm Emanuel, now the mayor of Chicago. When he was a member of congress and chair of the DCCC, Emanuel did everything in his power to suppress the progressive wing of the Democratic party even unto delving deeply into primary politics to scuttle anti-war candidates and to elevate pro-war candidates. Emanuel’s impact on health care legislation was egregious, blocking any congressional debate by Democrats and fawning over the Blue Dog Caucus, that would implode under his sovereignty. Please, give some due consideration to giving credit where credit is due – for failure of the Obama administraion to fulfill its promises of 2008 – i.e. to Rahm Emanuel.

So, do you know how they are going to come after you?
Yeah, they are going to arrange a meeting by someone I absolutely trust, and at that meeting I will be assassinated.

tony

May 19, 2017 at 10:13 am

“What we’re seeing regarding the intended removal of President Trump is not that much different from what has happened in dozens of other countries, whether Iran in 1953 or Ukraine in 2014 or Brazil in 2016.”

“Capitalism is the legitimate racket of the ruling class” Al Capone. American Criminal
Is this what happens: When gangsters are in control?
——————————————————————–
When gangsters are in control, endless wars slaughter millions of souls
And countries are destroyed by the hit men of the gangster ghouls
The unethical money changers finance their dirty depredations
And corporate cannibals profit from the bloody confrontations

Government by gangsters is now “the rule of law”
And “justice” is in the hands of criminals and outlaws
The language is twisted and debased
To suit these evil demons of the “human race”

Fancy titles and Houses of ill repute
Is where these villains consort and debut
Making “laws” to screw the masses
Yet, people continue to vote for these asses

If there really was “law and order”
These gangsters would be charged with genocide and murder
Instead these war criminals parade on the world stage
When they should be in a big enormous prison cage…

A very reasonable and sensible plan it is that could save us from Mike Pence, but reasonable and sensible are incomprehensible in Washington because they speak a different language.

Joe Tedesky

May 19, 2017 at 10:47 am

Gregory not to worry. Last night Rachel Maddow went after Pence pretty darn hard. I’m picturing Pence is a Spiro Agnew in the making. There again maybe I’m reading into it to much, and I’m overestimating the power of Rachel Maddow, but none the less Pence is now being put in front of the MSM firing squad.

jimbo

May 19, 2017 at 8:33 am

Parry’s suggestion for Trump’s parting shot is chicken feed. We all know Trump is a conspiracy guy. How about along with Parry’s modest wish list, on his way out of office Trumpy releases all the files we fellow conspiracy guys want: JFK, 9/11, Boston, as many as he can liberate. What a fuck you very much that would be!

Realist

May 19, 2017 at 6:30 am

So, E.J.Dionne has evolved into nothing more than a hatchet man for the neocon establishment. What a betrayal of his avowed principles. His criticisms of Trump’s “temperament” and “intellect” are nebulous accusations one can make about anybody. Right now I’m not liking Mr. Dionne’s holier-than-thou arrogance and willingness to allow himself to be used as a shiv to help assassinate Trump’s elected presidency.

The people elected Trump precisely because he said he wouldn’t follow the neocon agenda, so the Deep State, and its minions like Mr. Dionne, have no beef that he deviated in any way from it. Au contraire to your understandable desires to sweep the treachery and betrayal you represent under the rug ASAP, Mr. Dionne, if this public assassination is going to take place, I want it drawn out in full cinematic gore so the public can see exactly what the Deep State is doing to our constitutional rights, how they are pointedly undermining the will of the people and illegitimately seizing power.

Yes, there will be consequences. There SHOULD be consequences. A coup is as big an act of betrayal against the people and its elected government as you can commit. A lot of Americans will realise what the ethnic Russians in the Donbass felt if and when this putsch is carried out. One can only hope there is a counter revolt by the people who will make you burn, along with all the other traitors, Mr. Dionne.

Sorry, no where does it say in the constitution, the bible or whatever document you purport to follow that you are allowed to break the rules because you don’t like the style or the rhetoric of the elected leader. Reagan was pretty inflammatory, W. Bush was conspicuously incompetent, Clinton was a shameless liar, and Obama was an arrogant prat, yet you didn’t resort to organised insurrection against any of these. You sure have not proven that Mr. Trump has committed any wrongdoing with your inflated baseless accusations that are completely outlandish and unbelievable. You don’t even have any credible “circumstantial evidence” let alone any “smoking gun.” I cannot support changing the rules by which our country is governed just because you don’t like who was elected.

People, do not look away from what Mr. Dionne and his fellow neocon insurrectionists are doing to this country, and do not forget. When the time comes, and it will, punish them all for stealing the power from the people and bequeathing it to antidemocratic thugs.

mike k

May 19, 2017 at 9:32 am

Well said.

T K

May 19, 2017 at 4:29 am

The vast majority of everyone on Earth is against a US war with Russia. War with North Korea isn’t going to happen, that was all a distraction.

Yet at the end of the day, shouldn’t we continue to push against the Trump Administration? All I’ve read recently out of the hard leftist media is that the whole Russian-conspiracy angle is a neo-liberal defense of the Obama/Clinton worldview. I say this as someone who trusts Perry’s critique above almost any other, but really – what is the point here? Considering that Russia is not a communist country anymore, in fact, it is an authoritarian nationalist country which is basically fascist in nature, which aligns with some of our white nationalists chanting about how Russia is our Friend. I fear that too many people still consider the Russian government to be somehow leftist, when all evidence proves this to be false.

Really, what is the moral argument against Trump being investigated for obstruction of justice? Everything else aside, Russia is not communist, anymore than Obama was. The only logical explanation left, for the left to be pushing back against investigations of Trump… has to be that the fall of this government will somehow result in a more democratic government in its place. The parallels with Bannon cannot be ignored. It is anarchy. Are we really ready for that inevitability?

I would love for Trump to be bogged down with investigations for the next few years – regardless of whether it takes deep-state shenanigans for that to happen. Are we ready for America to become a 2nd-tier power – more importantly, are we ready for the violent death throes that will happen when this happens?

mike k

May 19, 2017 at 9:28 am

T K – Your calm and rational comments make perfect sense – in some other world. But in a world where the US Oligarchy – otherwise known as the Deep State – is determined to use military power to Rule the world, your ideas are totally irrelevant. You seem to believe that the US is a democracy in some meaningful way. It is not. The investigation of the US president is a witch hunt engineered by his enemies to bring him down. They will use lies and innuendos to accomplish this. The illusion, that you seemingly buy into, that this is a normal, healthy operation of democratic government is totally false.

WG

May 19, 2017 at 1:22 am

I usually appreciate Mr. Perry’s dry analytical approach to writing but when the topic is the end of the Republic and the complete collapse of American democracy, surely some vitriol and outrage is needed.

backwardsevolution

May 19, 2017 at 1:42 am

WG – yes, I’m with you. I don’t hear much outrage from anyone, just a lot of applauding for the demise of Trump. They don’t realize that they are losing their country. Idiots. I’m outraged, WG.

Sam F

May 19, 2017 at 11:23 am

Yes, but that is the effect of dry analysis when combined with Mr Parry’s lively arrangements, anecdotes, references, and sources. If he expressed vitriol or much outrage the writing would be less credible and would feel tiresome, and the reader would have no outrage left of his/her own.

Lolita

May 19, 2017 at 12:27 am

Do not forget the recent Iceland soft coup borne out of the Panama Papers… in which a successful Prime Minister who brought 3% growth to his country after the 2008 crisis but told the EU thanks but no thanks was brought to resign on some largely inconsequential story.
Since then, Iceland’s new government has reversed all capital control and is of course pro-EU…

backwardsevolution

May 19, 2017 at 1:19 am

Lolita – very interesting. If you don’t go along with what they want, they get you other ways.

backwardsevolution

May 19, 2017 at 12:24 am

From Paul Craig Roberts piece entitled “The Assault on Trump”:

“Trump, being in real estate and entertainment, was unaware of the landmines on which he was stepping when he said it was time to normalize relations with Russia and to rethink the purpose of NATO.

The US military/security complex sits on a budget extracted from very hard-pressed American taxpayers of $1,000 billion dollars annually. By threatening to normalize relations with the enemy which was created in order to justify this vast budget, Trump presented as the major threat to the American National Security State’s power and profit.

This is why Trump will be broken and/or removed as President of the United States.

Once again democracy in American is proving to be powerless. There is no one in Washington who can help Trump. Those who could help him, such as myself, cannot be confirmed by the US Senate, which is owned lock, stock, and barrel by the military/security complex, Wall Street, and the Israel Lobby.

Trump tried to connect the suffering American people to their government, an act of treason against the oligarchy, who are making an example of Trump that will dissuade politicians in the future from making populist appeals to the people.”

Trump is being hounded and set up for a fall because he started looking unreliable on the Israel ‘thing’. Now there’s proof: no embassy in Jerusalem. The Lobby demands absolute obedience.

backwardsevolution

May 19, 2017 at 1:34 am

NormanW – Yep. Of course, they probably set Trump up for another fall by telling him that we mustn’t move the embassy right now because it might incite the Arab world, we’ll do it later. Trump shakes his head in agreement, goes along, and then is fried in the press for going back on a promise.

Trump just does not know enough about the nature of psychopaths. They always know about your nature, though. They study it. They know Trump wants to please, wants to be seen as fair, wants people to like him, think he’s smart. Once they know your nature, your weaknesses, they come in for the kill, like predators. They set him up beautifully. They called him a tyrant, a bully, a dictator, Hitler, knowing that his nature would make him turn around and try to be seen as fair.

Even if he came in and fired the lot of them, he’d still have to appoint people to new positions, and he would never have gotten decent people (people who weren’t bought) through the nomination process. The Senate would have rejected them.

The whole system is corrupt, all of it, Congress, the Senate, the judiciary. It’s all bought.

Matt Krist Germany

May 19, 2017 at 4:31 am

Nice to hear that from you Americans.If i would say this in Germany,the Syndicate would call me NAZI,Antiamerican or Putinunderstander…It is your contry,you know the Backgrounds better than we europeans.Thank you for your faith.

Realist

May 19, 2017 at 6:50 am

Like professor Roberts said in the piece you cited below: Trump needs allies that have and can work on the inside, nose-to-nose with the Deep State insurrectionists, but they are shut out to a man. Neocons only need apply. There are about five influential figures left overtly supporting Trump who are willing to take the heat, but they are blackballed and drowned out by the cacophony of lies spewed by the media tools, most are old like Pat Buchanan, Ron Paul and Stephen F. Cohen. Anyone who hopes to have a future in politics, the media, academia or other demanding high-profile professions have been intimidated and scared away. This has been a putsch in the making since the last vote was counted on election day. The Deep State will not tolerate that the public’s choice for president did not coincide with theirs and so “remediation” is underway.

All the Jews (who are Isr supporters) like Rosenstein that Trump has appointed would rather have the fanatical evangelical Israel supporter Pence as president—Pence would be a lot more dependable on Israel for them—-and give Isr Jerusalem and a green light to genocide Palestine.

Who is suggesting all these zio appointments?–his son in law Kuchner?..Or his former bankruptcy lawyer who is a Nazi kind of Zionist and who Trump made Amb to Israel?

backwardsevolution

May 19, 2017 at 1:17 am

Cal – in my link below, Paul Craig Roberts said:

“There is no one in Washington who can help Trump. Those who could help him, such as myself, cannot be confirmed by the US Senate, which is owned lock, stock, and barrel by the military/security complex, Wall Street, and the Israel Lobby.”

Rosenstein was confirmed by a vote of 94 to 6 by the Senate. That’s not a close vote. Try putting through a “Smith” who isn’t in the back pocket of the Israeli lobby – forget about it! They wouldn’t have confirmed him. So Trump is limited in who he nominates. It must be someone who the lobby approves of, or the nomination is held up or disapproved. They own the U.S. government.

incontinent reader

May 19, 2017 at 1:56 am

There is such a thing as a recess appointment which would allow Trump to bypass the obstructions of his obstructors.

There is also such a thing as the NSA dragnet surveillance archive with literally oodles of dirt on every Congressman. Why not go after Schumer, Schiff, McCain and all the others. Nail the bastards, except with information that is fact based. As for how to do it ‘without violating the law’, Obama didn’t hesitate, even if he did (violate the law). And the media- well disclosing their unhealthy relationships should be relatively easy, especially if it comes from the Agencies that have compromised them.

backwardsevolution

May 19, 2017 at 5:50 am

incontinent reader – thank you for your great reply. I wonder what the ramifications would be for Trump if he did use recess appointments (which I’ve now read up on, but can’t say I completely understand). Impeachment at high noon?

Yes, I’m all for “nailing these bastards”. The only thing is who is going to help you do it? Reading the Pat Buchanan article (above), it sounds like these appointees and advisers are always thinking of their darned careers and might not be too willing to get involved for fear of jeopardizing their future (as in never having a career again). Maybe Trump could hire some of the retired NSA fellows, like William Binney, to come in and help out.

I’d love to see the look on the face of Six-Ways-From-Sunday Schumer when the tables are turned on him, or John McCain. Politics really is dirty business, and it appears the only way to survive is to fight dirt with dirt. Thanks.

Cal

May 18, 2017 at 11:11 pm

To Whom It May Concern

If you really want to save America you better get yourselves a team of assassins and start down sizing the Deep State.

Brad Owen

May 19, 2017 at 2:01 pm

I’m sure a few million deer hunters with their scoped, long-range rifles, and in militia movements, officially or casually, are thinking similar thoughts. I’m an electrician, one of those blue-collar “deplorables” the Clintonite donor class slammed, and although I lean Bernie/Jill/Green Party, believe me when I tell you that gun ownership is extremely high on the “Deplorable” list of respectable items, nearly sacred relics, equated to a sacred civic duty and citizenship itself…and they know how to use them too, many of them being veterans who had to “hunt” two-leggeds for Uncle Sam. Nobody appreciates just how thoroughly immersed in the gun culture are the blue-collar white guys, unless you too, are one of them, seeing it up close, first-hand, witnessing it all.

Cal

May 18, 2017 at 10:41 pm

The soft coup efforts to remove Trump are remarkably similar to the tactics Dulles employed in his Iran coup in the 50’s. Using propaganda and spreading lies among the public to rile them up and undermine Mossadegh politically, inducing authorities to cooperate , bribing members of parliament, he even had a team there who would round up people and them to start demonstrations and protest—-any of this sound familiar??
It should.

As far as the female genitalia thing goes, my understanding of the context offered by a seemingly more comprehensive account of the brag was that the situation he described was akin to a Fifty Shades of Gray scenario. In what I came across, Trump was boasting that a woman wo had rejected his advances previously was later coming to him making signals of sexual availability in his direction after some perceived elevation in his “status” through purported business successes.

I am sure nobody here is unfamiliar with Henry Kissinger’s reported saying which I deem to be referring to situations like these nor with its veracity, at least in a segment of the population at large even if only in a symbolic way. I think the enduring success of this sort of “literature” (and more highbrow offerings of such), and the personal intimate experience of many, can attest to this truth.

Just a quibble, excellent article otherwise. I can’t be bothered looking for the exact quote I stumbled across, but even if it’s wrong in the details the overall principle remains.

DK-5

May 18, 2017 at 8:48 pm

Well said Robert. Perhaps we can find some compassion for the man. At least he sounded a different note, and even a sweet note a couple of times, in deviating from the Establishment.

Donald needs to send a hand picked FBI team out to get Seth Rich’s computer….all of the witch hunt dies if Rich is the leaker…better yet if leads point to the Clinton establishment for the murder…at least charge her and the DNC staff for tampering with a US primary election….would be nice if we could find an OFF button from the “Russia did it” propaganda machine blaring at full volumn, from 20 directions, ALL DAY LONG!!!

I don’t agree that Trump would be wise to expose Deep State lies that concern the past. The only way he could help himself is to make public the complete Russia-gate story. What has been made public so far is not remotely probattive. If Trump makes everything public and there proves to be no there there, then people can rally to him as the victim of evident injustice. What has he got to lose?

Pft

May 18, 2017 at 7:41 pm

Things are not as they seem. This is a carefully scripted plan by the Deep State to push Trump into Total War, not that he was not inclined to do so anyways. His Russian connections lead to mafia ties so deep he could lose everything under Rico. He knows this. Once the War begins the internet kill switch is thrown and the lights go out. Martial Law. Like in WWI, if you criticize the war you go to jail.

I never did believe Trump with his billions would want to be in this for the long haul. He resigns at some point, keeps his fortune and the guy the Deep State and Dark Money (koch Brothers, etc) wanted all along takes over (Pence).

Trump was a Trojan Horse to get the Koch Brothers control. They probably had something on Trump to force him to run and avoid Rico charges. He lied his way into office , got some help from Comey and a mole in the DNC who has been taken out (blamed on Putin) and now will play out the script. Lets face it, we’ve all been had.

Unfortunately…that is my perspective also…Trump will take his bribe, resign the office to pence….

prepare your children…war is coming

susan sunflower

May 18, 2017 at 9:57 pm

Trump is following Clinton’s model … he’s painted himself into a corner stonewalling and now cannot voluntarily, graciously let “sunshine be the best disinfectant” without losing face … he can’t appeal to the media to spread his side of the story because he’s already told his faithful that they should not be believed …So many self-inflicted errors and wounds (many small and stupid — they apparently didn’t bother with hiring on someone familiar with proper protocol and avoidance of ethical embarassments) … everyday it’s some new no-brainer that suggest this president ain’t learning fast enough on the job and has let his ego and vanity take precedent over doing that job … again, showing a lack of discipline and god-bless-America “professionalism”

Beware the “Military Industrial Complex.”
When Trump said NATO was “obsolete,” the war criminals soiled themselves. Now they are trying to get rid of Trump, and are worried that their bloody war-making money machine could be in danger if there was Peace with Russia and other countries.

“More blood money is needed to feed the NATO war beast
A bloody ravenous monster that on bodies does feast
It is hungry for more and more endless wars
And all the destruction, devastation and hellish gore”…

911 Truthers worked hard to expose the official conspiracy lies but they were buried by the media calling them conspiracy names, and they are still working to expose all the lies.

I do agree with Backward Evolution that Trump really did want to get to work on the issues of the wars, the economy that didn’t work for regular people, and on Russia he believed that getting along with Russia was good for business. Despite all his flaws, I think he believed something could be done but he had no idea of the power of the Deep State. And he also had no idea of the power of the Clinton political machine, maybe inklings but no fleshing out from real experience.

I also feel as Dan Weil does and many others do, that this ship is ready to go down from so many decades of bad economic decisions. That is part of what is causing the government insanity, they are walking on shaky ground and by living in the Beltway bubble, they don’t even know or care what the people are living through. Some comments about Trump’s threats to the environment are not well placed, because capitalism has been the threat for at least 30 years and the sorry shape of the planet shows there has been little or no concern but for profits.

I think the people may need to be spontaneously ready for a March on Washington to show how disgusted they are with this mess. And we need to know that the Deep State has electromagnetic weapons which are more powerful than ordinary arms. It depends on whether the police support the Deep State or recognize that they are also the people.

Robert

May 18, 2017 at 6:57 pm

Well said Mr. Parry and is exactly right. I remember being in my journalism class in 1973 and wanting to be an investigative reporter and get to the bottom of corruption in politics… I was a member of the San Diegans for impeaching Richard Nixon and did my share of marching but then my journalism professor said, (I’m paraphrasing) people don’t want the truth, they want to feel good and believe all their decisions are the right ones. Even if they’re not. I supported Bernie Sanders, and I told anyone who would listen that if Clinton gets the ballot Trump will be president. People laughed at me. I had talked tome relatives who were Bernie supporters… I asked who they would vote for…”if Clinton is nominated I’m voting for Trump”. I heard it over and over. One of the main reasons at least in my family,was that our foreign policy is a nightmare and the military industrial complex must be slowed down. And make peace with Russia. Well,we see where we are. And Robert is right about how we got here.

David F., N.A.

May 18, 2017 at 6:33 pm

Wasn’t the “deep state” neocon’s (consevaDems included) no-lose choice for president between a dog-whistle, identity-politicking “woman”, of which whom a lot of them vehemently couldn’t stand, and a buffoon’s backdoored-veep? They chose Pence over Hillary.

Our election processes are becoming almost as long as our campaigns. Stay tuned.

This is all the result of allowing the USA to live under the terrible lies created by the 9/11/01 attacks, and the subsequent US military Ames strain Anthrax attacks, which were all done by the same perpetrators. Those events were designed to inflict trauma-based conditioning and propaganda to push Netanyahu and Samuel Huntington’s “Clash of Civilizations” attack on Muslim countries. Few journalists, including Robert Parry, have been willing to look at the facts and the anomalies of the “official story”. Even 15 years after the initial false flag attacks, the incredible military stand-down, the massive cover-up, rewarding and promotion of everyone who failed to protect us, and the use of the event to justify the use of torture, various resource and destabilization wars of benefit to Israel and major US corporations, and the huge expansion of a vast police state apparatus for surveillance and repression. The Orwellian-named “Patriot Act” was pushed through Congress while it was was under Anthrax attack and vacated. Read Professor Graeme MacQueen’s book “The 2001 Anthrax Deception”. You reap what you sow, and we sowed tyranny and dishonesty. Only truth can set us free!

Joe Tedesky

May 18, 2017 at 11:34 pm

What you bring up here should be a big part of the conversation. It’s good you remind us of these events, and of how these events have molded our society into our being nothing more than stupid cattle. Keep posting.

Gregory Herr

May 19, 2017 at 5:21 pm

This book is well-researched and well-reasoned.

Knomore

May 18, 2017 at 5:49 pm

The Seth Rich murder case is dovetailing into this heightened conspiracy… New details suggest that he wasn’t just shot in the back by some unknown assailants but that he was actually beaten before he was killed. This is important because it leads into the whole Russiagate meme which the Deep State has been working at so hard to concoct a viable excuse to get Trump.

I hope Trump weathers this. I don’t think the man is dumb at all — I think the people who are behind this are evil beyond belief and if they succeed, woe be to all of us.

Knomore. please do not use the word “meme” when you have no idea of its definition. It is completely mis-used in your comment. You are not the only one who has grabbed onto this suddenly popular word, and the others mis-use it, too.

Joe Tedesky

May 18, 2017 at 11:29 pm

meme
m?m/
noun
an element of a culture or system of behavior that may be considered to be passed from one individual to another by nongenetic means, especially imitation.
a humorous image, video, piece of text, etc., that is copied (often with slight variations) and spread rapidly by Internet users.

I think I’m guilty of using the word ‘meme’ the wrong way as well, so I thought it a good idea to post its definition.

backwardsevolution

May 19, 2017 at 12:08 am

Joe – I have no idea what the heck that word means. My kids try to tell me how to use it, but I always get it wrong, and then I hear them saying, “That’s not a meme!” I give up; I just avoid the word altogether.

Realist

May 19, 2017 at 7:18 am

How is the belief that “Russia Gate” is a true fact NOT a meme by the definition you provided, which is the one typically found in most dictionaries?

I’ve run through this before, but here we go again. The word was purposefully devised by sociobiologists as a parallel to “gene.” Why? Because it turns out that snippets of cultural information, things like words in languages, customs, traditions, recipes and commonly held ideas and beliefs, like genes which are also units of information, are passed from one generation to the next, or from one population to another, through a filter of natural selection acting upon them, just as genes are selected or not by similar selective assaults from their environment. “Russia Gate” most certainly is a bit of cultural information that most people believe to be true, even if it is NOT. It has survived the filter of natural selection and thrives within a certain mental/psychological environment. Under a different environment, say if more people used critical thinking to ascertain the veracity of a claim, this notion might be selected against and thereby disappear from the population. Mr. Roy has his own personal definition for the word “meme” (which he usually does not divulge–do you see it here?) and also a “thing” about its use which he repeatedly interjects into the conversations here. I would not listen to him on this matter.

Cal

May 19, 2017 at 11:16 am

@ Rob Roy

It is you who does not understand the definition of meme.
Don’t presume to instruct others when you evidently aren’t even capable of reading and understanding what the definition says.

1:
an idea, behavior, style, or usage that spreads from person to person within a culture.

•Memes (discrete units of knowledge, gossip, jokes and so on) are to culture what genes are to life. Just as biological evolution is driven by the survival of the fittest genes in the gene pool, cultural evolution may be driven by the most successful memes.

Hint for you to help you UNDERSTAND the usage——>’AN IDEA’–..’THAT SPREADS'” should be clues for you.

In the Russia gate case,…. “the idea’ that Russia hacked the election or iow the propaganda started by politicians has become a MEME in the media and press and among individuals. They are promoting the SAME IDEA.

Paul Craig Roberts also mentions the media in his article “The Assault on Trump”:

“What we are witnessing is the determination of the national security state to keep their prized “Russian Threat” in its assigned role as the Number One Threat to the US. The liberal media, owned by the CIA since the 1950s, is in accord with this goal.”

Since the 1950s!

Skip Scott

May 19, 2017 at 7:27 am

Art-

Wow!!! and thanks for the great link.

Matt Krist Germany

May 18, 2017 at 5:41 pm

Okay,if the President should not be able to drain the all american swamp of freemasons,pharisees markets and shizophrenic mainstream medias ,than you guys have to do the Job.For your children.For your Country.For the planet.Who else should do it?And if you surrender,yes,i think you all know how the Story will end.So,hurry up and Good luck! And god bless the President!

Bill Bodden

May 18, 2017 at 6:23 pm

Don’t hold your breath for the American people to rise and do their duty as citizens, Matt.

Sam F

May 18, 2017 at 8:27 pm

Good advice, but the US is heavily propagandized, its elections and mass media controlled by oligarchy, all branches of federal government utterly corrupt, and the moral and intellectual culture degenerated by mass media to generalized cowardice, selfishness, and corruption. This is because mass media and elections are not restricted to limited individual contributions, and without those tools of democracy such amendments to the constitution cannot be made peacefully. So history awaits the disaster, economic or otherwise, that brings the people to anger and the oligarchy enforcers to refuse service against rebellion.

Feel free to dump NATO and organize the EU with BRICS to embargo the US and Israel. Three cheers if you do.

Matt Krist Germany

May 19, 2017 at 1:43 am

Sam,People would make me european emperor,if i could do so.But still the syndicates rule.And Germany is the worst Country of all european countries,because it is completely controled by the CIA,and their buddies.Every US-Israelian-war in the world,exept the pacific area, (are there other wars anywhere actually??) is controlled from Germany!Ramstein,Stuttgart etc.More than 1500 Trains with Military Equipment Through Austria to the Ukraine,Similar masses were brouht to Kiel,a german Harbour,and than via Poland to the russan border.Travelling through Germany,my brother and his Family have seen places filled with US-Tanks,more than cars on the factory-parking -places of AUDI or Mercedes!So we probably have the biggest Problem.Many many Germans do not want to hear about these things and look away.They all know,if the Syndicate makes stress,where it will happen…..

Mark

May 18, 2017 at 5:34 pm

And pigs could fly if they had wings! :(

Herman

May 18, 2017 at 5:27 pm

Maybe Mark Twain didn’t say it but it fits.

“The report of my death was an exaggeration.”

Or the story of the stock market speculator who bets against the market and wins. If a market were to form on Trump’s early demise as President, betting against it is a good bet. In fairness, only because his survival is so underpriced.

It could be a watershed moment when the irresistible force turns out to be not. .

Zachary Smith

May 18, 2017 at 5:14 pm

He could authorize CIA Director Mike Pompeo to prepare for release U.S. intelligence information regarding turning-point moments in recent years, such as the truth about the 2013 sarin incident in Syria and the 2014 Malaysia Airlines shoot-down in eastern Ukraine.

I like this idea.

Drew Hunkins

May 18, 2017 at 5:09 pm

Trump should be vigorously denounced and disparaged for his attacks on the regulatory apparatus that protects the environment, small investors, consumers, workers and those advocating for universal healthcare coverage. It’s these aspects of his platform that must be attacked with all the muscle we can muster.

The Russian angle should be totally ignored by smart progressives and other peace loving folks since, as Gertrude Stein’s famous line explained, ‘there’s no there there.’

Clearly any presidential admin seeking avenues to have amicable relations with Moscow should be lauded. Anyone who hasn’t fallen for all the Russophobic kool-aid fully understands this. What needs to be understood is that we have a militaristic cabal in this country made up of intell agencies, Zionists, and military empire builders — wedded to much of the WaPo and NY Times opinion and ed pages, NPR, CNN, elements of Fox News and PBS News Hour — who are intent on demonizing Putin and the Kremlin and genuflecting to the giant billion dollar Defense [sic] contracting conglomerates.

Since the end of WWII a massive national security state has evolved and these careerists MUST justify their jobs and budgets by any means necessary. If it puts the world at risk of nuclear Armageddon, no matter, we MUST have our vilified enemy of the day to trot out and pillory in the press to gin up fear and anger among the hard pressed American people.

To see otherwise decent liberal minded notables pontificate about the evils of Russian meddling and spying is devastating. Michael Moore, Krugman, Moyers and Rachel Maddow should be downright ashamed for knowingly pontificating falsehoods.

To see otherwise wonderful progressive congresspersons, such as the Congressional Black Caucus play up the Moscow boogeyman angle and essentially advocate for more war, is one of the more depressing and dispiriting things I’ve ever witnessed in my decades of following Washington politico-economic affairs. The black civil rights leaders and activists of the 1960s are rolling over in their graves!

Rob Roy

May 18, 2017 at 9:08 pm

Drew Hunkins, well said and exactly right. Nice to know there are sane people out there. We have Robert Parry to be grateful for, too, of course. He’s my go-to guy for level-headed analysis.

Drew Hunkins

May 19, 2017 at 12:19 am

Thanks for the kind words.

Yes! Parry is definitely a major, major go to source for me as well. I proudly donate to CN every time they run a fundraiser.

If I may be so bold as to suggest a few other dynamite intellects out there to read if you can find the time:

James Petras, Diana Johnstone, Paul Craig Roberts (ecept when he flies off the handle and absurdly asserts that “crisis actors” staged the Boston Marathon atrocity), John Pilger, Jeffrey St. Clair, Norman Finkelstein, and Norman Solomon.

Skip Scott

May 19, 2017 at 7:16 am

Drew-

Thanks for a great post. Many otherwise progressive people have fallen for the old “bait and switch”. They need to re-focus. I read PCR and know that he goes for some of the wilder conspiracies, but I thought his take on the Boston Marathon Bombing was that it was a false flag, not one with crisis actors. Supposedly the backpacks that blew up were black, the photos show the supposed perps with white backpacks. I think his take was that someone else planted the bombs, and the exercise was really all about Police State city-wide lockdowns (shelter in place).

Drew Hunkins

May 19, 2017 at 10:25 am

Thank you.

Actually on April 15 PCR wrote a column in which he specifically stated that crisis actors were totally involved in the Boston Marathon atrocity. Of course I cannot agree with this whatsoever and find it to be quite frankly outlandish. In virtually all other respects PCR is always so spot-on.

Skip Scott

May 19, 2017 at 12:16 pm

Drew-

I think my PCR info was old, he went with the crisis actor scenario more recently. He also claims crisis actors were involved in Sandy Hook, The Florida disco, and Nice France. It seems to me it’d be tough to keep something like that secret with all those people involved, but we sure do live in strange times.

They overrode Obama’s directive in the fall of 2016 as well. They just went rogue and did whatever they felt like doing. Listen to the short video.

Andrew Dabrowski

May 18, 2017 at 9:08 pm

So you think today’s airstrike was a rogue operation? And Trump has nothing to say about it because he’s in fear for his life?

backwardsevolution

May 18, 2017 at 9:18 pm

Andrew – what I’m saying is we don’t know what happened yet. It could be the same as when they disobeyed Obama in the fall of 2016. Did you listen to the video? Obama had signed an agreement with the Russians, and yet the military said “Piss on that” and did their own thing.

This is what Kucinich says:

“Our nation is under attack from within.”

mike k

May 18, 2017 at 4:42 pm

There is a natural tendency in myself, and I suspect others, to leap to saving our democracy in these troubled times. But the question arises, what democracy? Isn’t that a little like saving capitalism? Was it ever worth saving? I am waking up to realize how far we have been off any true course since way, way back when.

When institutions prove themselves over long periods to be unsuccessful, and actually disastrous to those living under them, isn’t it time to let them collapse, perhaps even give them a shove?

tpmco

May 19, 2017 at 3:38 am

I think that your comment is an upper-level definition of where we’re at.

Sam F

May 19, 2017 at 6:29 am

We do not have a functioning democracy, but it is a framework for major reforms, as intended by the Constitutional Convention. It has been corrupted by the rise of economic concentrations and now information power, and the corruption can in principle be eliminated. If we find no path to reform, then replacement is indeed better.

Here is the minimal structural change needed:
1. A national institution of textual debate among university experts in each region and discipline, which debates every aspect of affairs and policy changes, preserving absolutely all points of view, and not forcing consensus, producing commented public summaries, so everyone has all of the best arguments for real viewpoints if they want them;
2. Eliminate money control of mass media and elections; we all know why this is essential;
3. Provide checks and balances in each federal branch (executive, legislative, judicial) because they don’t work where the branches have distinct and disproportionate powers.

How to get there? Not by education, because those tools of democracy are not ours. History suggests widespread riots, after enforcement agencies are infiltrated to prevent defenses of corrupted institutions. But that requires generations of poverty coupled with widespread perception of tyranny. One way or another, only a complete disaster can destroy or cower the rich tyrants and recycle corrupted institutions.

But this is not bad, really: it just means that we can celebrate looming national disasters and foreign policy failures as the shortest path to restoring democracy. There will be plenty of those in the next two to four generations, so sit back and enjoy them! As with a tree in the forest of democracies, the survival of our Constitution is of little consequence so long as the forest survives, the nutrients are recycled, and the location hosts a healthier tree.

ranney

May 18, 2017 at 4:33 pm

Wow! Once again Robert has cleared away the bushes and brambles that clog our view and shown us what the road actually looks like. Thank you.
I hope someone in Trump’s entourage sees this and explains it to Trump. I think, Robert, you are dead on and it would be useful if Trump was aware of the extreme danger of not only losing the presidency, but also the Trump “brand” which I believe is more important to him.
Hey maybe someone reading this will forward a copy to Ivanka and Jared; I’m pretty sure one or the other of them is smart enough to understand it.

Jessejean

May 18, 2017 at 4:30 pm

I love this idea and so wish it would happen. But T-rump never takes ANY advise. Do you think he’ll listen to Lefties? If only Bannon had suggested this, but he only cares for the raw powerful to abuse immigrants and women and Muslims and blacks and……

Am i tripping? or has Fox been getting some stories right lately? too strange…

backwardsevolution

May 18, 2017 at 9:14 pm

derek – I watch Tucker Carlson because I like him. I think he tries to cover all sides of an issue, not just one side. I think Fox is trying to become the network that tells the truth. God knows that none of the others do.

good article thanks man….shes a good human…but needs to hear this feedback…i havnt thrown the baby out with the bath water,,,just yet….:>)

regards
d

Kiza

May 19, 2017 at 8:42 am

The real reason Trump may be facing impeachment soon is that he has not delivered Syria (Golan Heights ++) yet and is not even showing a firm intention to. Please consider that if Hilldabeast won the election the missiles manufactured by the US dual citizen companies such as Raytheon would be flying all over the place and weekly, not only a 60 missile salvo one-off. In a nutshell: the US taxpayer pays to the Jewish owned and run companies for the tools that help steal more land for Israel, because this is (so they tell us) in US interest.

Therefore, it is either deliver Syria or face impeachment, they are not going to wait till 2020 to start extracting Golan’s oil. Everything else is kicking sand and spewing fog into our faces – the usual obfuscation.

Trump was not in power when illegal wars were planned.
Why are the war criminals still running free? Millions are dead and there are millions of refugees. Countries have been destroyed and these crimes against humanity are ignored. Will nobody arrest these people meeting in Brussels? Lots of info at link below on their atrocities.
“The War Gangs and War Criminals of NATO to Meet in Brussels”http://graysinfo.blogspot.ca/2017/05/the-war-gangs-and-war-criminals-of-nato.html

Bill Bodden

May 18, 2017 at 4:50 pm

Why are the war criminals still running free?

Because the barbarians are running the show.

tina

May 18, 2017 at 11:23 pm

Are you that naïve? How old are you, 10? Of course no one will be held accountable or arrested. Business and profits. .Go read a history book

Sam F

May 19, 2017 at 6:09 am

What Stephen said suggests some real truth, and does not deserve scorn. His questions are rhetorical.
If you would educate from history or experience, you must not assume that everyone agrees.
If someone seems naive, give a lesson in analysis based upon history and experience.

Jim

May 18, 2017 at 4:18 pm

“While Barack Obama had the intellectual skills and behaved commendably in his personal conduct, he had little experience in managing a complex organization – and it showed in some of his disastrous personnel decisions, ”

And we’re to believe that Obama had any say or control over his personnel? Let’s call it what it was. Obama was installed as a puppet and given his orders; and he dutifully executed them. Wikileaks pretty much confirmed this with his “selections” for cabinet positions.

Bill Bodden

May 18, 2017 at 4:49 pm

Let’s call it what it was. Obama was installed as a puppet and given his orders; and he dutifully executed them.

You nailed it, Jim.

tina

May 18, 2017 at 11:18 pm

A puppet by whom? Your imaginary deep state? Oh, I forgot , Obama was a Kenyan born, Muslim, socialist communist, fascist,
who took all of our guns away, and murdered unborn babies, and makes all of us obey satan. Yeah, Obama the puppet. Try again . Because the last time I checked, I have even more gun rights, my public school is now a charter school, my wages have not increased, But yeah, that Barak, what a puppet. Try Again. State governments. 32 or 33 under republican leadership since 2010. Citizen’s United decision. Billions of dollars flowing into elections, sure,it is Obama’s fault, that little devil, puppet.

He was nominally from Chicago (as a springboard for a black to a senate seat), but he was more a creature of Wall Street (banks, finance, media…) and the Beltway (MIC, Intel, Pentagon, DNC…) than anything they’ve got cooking in Chi-town. They say he was vetted for the job while still a student at Columbia and Harvard. He doesn’t give Chicago the time of day any longer.

Sam F

May 19, 2017 at 5:57 am

The irrational opposition to Obama didn’t get beyond the loony and racist factions; he had that one positive effect. Even when the Dems controlled Congress in his first two years, he failed to restrain wars for Israel, investigate and purge the bribed, or restrain Wall Street and the MIC, because he was very much their puppet, as the Dems remain.

Every president has the opportunity to reform the mass media and elections by executive overreach, to secure constitutional amendments to restrict funding of mass media and elections to limited individual contributions. Every president can dump NATO, purge congress of the dependents of Israel and KSA/MIC/WallSt, purge and downsize the military and secret agencies, purge the near-total corruption of the judiciary. That is the only path to restore democracy without a revolution after economic destruction of the nation. Every president who does not do that is a traitor or a coward without a thought for humanity.

Skip Scott

May 19, 2017 at 6:57 am

Sam F-

You definitely nailed that one. Plus we must remember that Obama didn’t pursue prosecution of the previous administration for lying us into the Iraq War, and didn’t go after Wall Street for the massive fraud that caused the last financial collapse. His A.G. Eric Holder got his old office back in Manhattan because he stayed buddies with the big banks who his old law firm made money defending. Instead he continued illegal drone strikes, had weekly terror tuesday meetings to update his kill list, and had his 2008 cabinet picked out for him by Citigroup. If that isn’t being a puppet, I don’t know what is.

Tina should be watching CNN or MSDNC, since she is a non-thinking, lapdog, big D, democrat. Rachel Madcow and Anderson Cooper are more her speed than Robert Parry.

Kiza

May 19, 2017 at 8:36 am

But any president who does do even one of that is a dead man.

Sam F

May 19, 2017 at 9:13 am

Kiza, I see your point, but I think that a president who sees the threat can simply let it be known that opposing internal powers have destroyed democracy, and identify them and the nature of their threat. That would be the shot heard round the world. If no part of the military, national guard, secret agencies, and even the DC police can be commanded to resist such tyranny, and oppose and arrest the leaders of cabals, then the people would know and would rise in opposition.

Also I think that if a president has a shadow government well selected and prepared to seize the reins, they should be able to purge the highest levels of the federal agencies and private power centers before the declaration of emergency powers to effect necessary reforms to restore democracy.

Personally I would take the risk, with adequate precautions to ensure the loyalty of enforcers. It is difficult to believe that no one else has such courage, although perhaps we will see no one in power with the good of the US and of humanity at heart.

Mac

May 19, 2017 at 7:42 am

@tina: good to see that there is a sane voice here. The rest sound like a conspiracy echo chamber, spinning a fantasy that Trump is friend to the little man being hounded by the mysterious “elites”. It’s instructive to see how warped the interpretation of real events can be. And also a bit disturbing.

Sam F

May 19, 2017 at 8:46 am

Clearly you are well aware that there is no illusion here about Trump being a “friend to the little man being hounded by the mysterious elites.” You will fool no one among readers here.

Realist

May 19, 2017 at 7:43 am

You should write for SNL. Funny stuff!

Skip Scott

May 20, 2017 at 9:42 am

Tina-

The existence of the Deep State is not imaginary. You can argue that we imagine their subverting of our democracy, but not their existence. After they sabotaged Obama’s detente with the Russians over Syria at Dier Ez-zor, I would think even you would see that Obama was not in control of his own foreign policy.

You should check out Caitlin Johnstone, she writes some great stuff. Here’s what she says about the deep state:

“the term “deep state” is not a conspiracy theory but a basic concept in political analysis. It simply refers to the self-evident and undeniable fact that there are people in power within America who were not elected (primarily the plutocrats, corporate media, intelligence community and military-industrial complex), and that those people tend to form alliances and collaborate toward agendas that benefit them.”

The deliberate preference for inexperienced complicit and dependent leadership (presidential spokesmodels) is something that’s going to be hard to correct … The public mostly loved Obama’s jokes, Michelle’s earnestness, and those well dressed, well groomed daughters with the excellent posture. Pains me to say it, but we may have gotten our “just desserts” in Trump … now if “the system” can find a plausible exit strategy … I’m not hopeful.

Andrew Dabrowski

May 18, 2017 at 4:16 pm

“He could authorize CIA Director Mike Pompeo to prepare for release U.S. intelligence information regarding turning-point moments in recent years, such as the truth about the 2013 sarin incident in Syria and the 2014 Malaysia Airlines shoot-down in eastern Ukraine. [See here and here.]”

You don’t seem to be paying attention. Far from exposing anything Trump has made clear he will continue the tradition of presidents using flimsy pretexts to distract the country with foreign aggression, e.g. the Syria re-run a few weeks ago. Did you miss that?

People aren’t trying to bring down Trump because he’s a peacenik. The Powers that Be have long moved on from Russophobia and now mostly share Trump’s attitude that Russia is a great place to make money. They want to bring him down because he’s dangerously incompetent, and could hurt profits.

backwardsevolution

May 18, 2017 at 4:40 pm

Andrew – “People aren’t trying to bring down Trump because he’s a peacenik. The Powers that Be have long moved on from Russophobia and now mostly share Trump’s attitude that Russia is a great place to make money. They want to bring him down because he’s dangerously incompetent, and could hurt profits.”

What planet have you been living on? Moved on? Weren’t there calls for impeachment just yesterday? Wasn’t a special counsel appointed just yesterday? Oh, so now they share an attitude that Russia is a great place to make money? Bravo! When did this all happen?

Of course they’re trying to impeach Trump. They are trying to bring down a duly-elected President of the United States who they have hounded, vilified, lied about, and crushed. Be proud, your profits will soon be safe.

The elite are sending a message to any non-politician who might want to become President in the future: “If you are not corrupt like us, just don’t go there, or we will crush you. We like our corruption, our insider trading, our campaign contributions, bribes, revolving door, fines-instead-of-jail-time existence. Sure we are being blackmailed by foreign and domestic forces, but as long as we do what we’re told, it’s all good.”

I think Trump truly did want to drain the swamp. I think, had he not been viciously hounded for the past few months, he might actually have pulled it off. But they weren’t going to let him do it, were they? So Trump tried to appease them, tossed a few bombs where very few got hurt, but that’s not enough for the warmongers, is it?

Yes, Trump is over his head, but only – only – because they’ve been out to get him since he won the Republican nomination. It is a sad day when bullies can bring down another person.

Have at it, Andrew. It’s all your’s.

Bill Bodden

May 18, 2017 at 4:48 pm

The Establishment wants to get rid of Trump because he is an outsider. Trump was never accepted in the first instance.

tina

May 18, 2017 at 10:59 pm

Trump is the establishment, the only difference, is that his family is not a Bush, Kennedy, Carnegie, Mellon, Rockefeller, Roosevelt, Vanderbilt, Astor, ….. He is a Trump, Drumpf. What is wrong with that surname?

Andrew Dabrowski

May 18, 2017 at 4:50 pm

I wasn’t disputing that people are trying to bring him down, just the reason for it. He never intended to drain the swamp, it’s his natural habitat.

backwardsevolution

May 18, 2017 at 5:17 pm

I think he did intend to drain the swamp because, as Bill Bodden said above, he is an outsider and was never part of the swamp. He might have known some of the players in the swamp, or how to maneuver around the outsides of the swamp, but he wasn’t part of it. Trump didn’t belong to the Council on Foreign Relations or the Trilateral Commission. He wasn’t involved in think tanks and he didn’t sit on numerous Boards of Directors. He wasn’t constantly hobnobbing with politicians. He was a very small bit player on a great big stage.

Trump wanted to bring peace, but they wouldn’t let him. I mean, how are the arms manufacturers and weapons suppliers going to continue to reap unconscionable profits if there isn’t perpetual war? He wanted to bring down the cost of healthcare, but the insurance and pharmaceutical company vultures have told him in no uncertain terms that their monopolies are not to be touched.

He did cancel the TPP (Trans Pacific Partnership) and wanted to bring jobs back to America, but apparently that’s no good either. Trump wanted to control the borders so that the American people (yes, the people who are actually citizens) didn’t end up paying for the expenses that the illegals were entitled to, and, gee, without the constant influx of cheap labor, American wages might have risen.

I could go on. Trump is not part of the club, and they are getting rid of the little man who dared think he could enter their space.

Andrew Dabrowski

May 18, 2017 at 10:01 pm

A NYC real estate tycoon is in no conceivable sense an outsider. You’ve mistaken hopes for likelihoods.

The notion that illegal immigration is responsible for low wages is just what the real Deep State wants you to believe. They’d rather have ordinary people fighting each other than learn that wages have been flat because that’s the way the Plutocrats want it.

tina

May 18, 2017 at 11:03 pm

Trump wants to make money. He has no idea other than dollars for him and his family.

Joe Tedesky

May 18, 2017 at 11:52 pm

First of all, we shouldn’t assume that all rich people like their fellow rich people. Trump not being a member of the CFR or the Trilateral Commision, is certainly lacking if he is not a member of each. Remember to how Trump spoke during the primaries. Trumps attack on the Bush family and John McCain were incredible, let alone the other Republican candidates, oh and don’t forget how he treated Mitt, Trump’s mean spiritedness was enough to make anyone a lifetime member of the elite’s hate club. Lastly, ask yourself, would you want to piss off Hillary Clinton & the Podesta’s….and don’t forget slimbucket Soros. Wow, those names I just mentioned here are a short list of all the entities and people that Trump threw mud at…so while Trump maybe elite, he just may not be elite enough.

backwardsevolution

May 18, 2017 at 11:55 pm

Andrew – “The notion that illegal immigration is responsible for low wages is just what the real Deep State wants you to believe. They’d rather have ordinary people fighting each other than learn that wages have been flat because that’s the way the Plutocrats want it.”

I agree that the Deep State want ordinary people fighting each other, but have you never heard about supply and demand? It’s doesn’t get simpler than that to explain the flat wages.

“A NYC real estate tycoon is in no conceivable sense an outsider.”

He might be inside city politics, but that doesn’t make him an insider. He’s not part of the Deep State club. He is an outsider.

susan sunflower

May 18, 2017 at 7:10 pm

Trump has lost many opportunities to debunk this Russian controversy/scandal/crisis … There’s no there there and this is obvious as more and more comes out as to how many months and years various “details” have been widely known and many have been “under investigation” …
There were promises that Manafort was about-to-be-indicted on the eve of the November election. Yesterday, there was **breaking news** about big-buck Mortgages he received (that were reported months ago by the Intercept).

Under Obama (just prior to his taking office) the big banks and wall street crash the economy — crickets.
Paul Manafort gets some friend-of-Donnie special treatment from the banks — senate hearings

There is a shit-ton of fodder to expose the opportunism, faux-hypocrisy and political theatrics behind so much of this … he’s got no game, no chops, no clue …

His Achilles heel is his vanity … it’s likely why he ran for president (to prove he could be taken seriously, if not win) … I think they hope for a Nixonian resignation (and immunity) in advance of total humiliation (unspecified and hard to imagine after this last week — bragging and thereby casually jeopardizing intelligence cooperation with our allies is pretty juvenile)

Oh, and NBC says Joe Lieberman is a top contender to run the FBI … that ought to earn him more ridicule

mike k

May 18, 2017 at 4:15 pm

When thieves and murderers fall out, it can get pretty ugly. Wars between rival Mafias give an idea of what it’s like. This is what is happening in Washington DC today. The democrat and Republican parties are busy destroying any credibility they may ever have had, and we can only hope they will cease to exist in the future. Actually every department of our government is showing itself to be hopelessly corrupt.

What we are experiencing is the massive eruption of corruption that accompanies the collapse of empires, but in this case it will be greatly magnified and accelerated by the collapse of industrial civilization and the ecosphere.

susan sunflower

May 18, 2017 at 4:47 pm

yes, the guardian has an article up today about Trump’s financial dirt .. they say, “if only the public had been made aware” …

If a single story emerges, it is the complicity of financial institutions in every stage of the rise and the resurrection of Trump. For a reader who before 2016 knew him only as a sketchy figure in the world of real estate, fake wrestling and reality TV, the extent of the connivance is shocking. In The Art of the Deal, the book he wrote in 1987 with Tony Schwartz, Trump claimed to have paid $5m in cash for the purchase of Mar-a-Lago, but in court testimony, Johnston says, he later “confirmed that his primary bank, Chase Manhattan, had loaned him the entire purchase price”. The transaction had the peculiar legal status of “a non-recorded mortgage”. But surely a mortgage needs a guarantor? Trump said he “personally guaranteed” the loan to himself by Chase Manhattan. The next page tightens the analogy between his practices and those that triggered the 2008 financial collapse: “Many banks,” Johnston writes, “complained that they were unaware other banks had loaned money to Trump on his personal guarantee with no public record of the obligation.” Years before he ran for president, Trump was a human complex derivative.

His lesser stratagems have required neither treachery nor the concealment of relevant facts. They exhibit nothing worse than a shameless use of the legal resources for squeezing extra dollars through the tax loopholes available to the very rich (especially the landed rich). Trump could reduce the property tax on his golf course in Bedminster, New Jersey almost down to zero by keeping a pen of goats there and having it zoned as “active farmland”.

Why did the Clinton campaign focus so on bogus Russian claims and pussy-grab sexism?

I again wonder just how powerful our various “mafias” are and how entwined with both parties so as to make someone as un-Teflon-like as Trump “untouchable” …

Joe Tedesky

May 18, 2017 at 4:14 pm

I’m at a loss wondering to what the news & entertain media will do without a President Trump. I know this, Russia will stay in the news, and the demonization of Putin will only get worst. With or without Trump the forces that really control America was and is going to go after the Kremlin Bear like there is no tomorrow.

As far as Trump exposing any hidden secrets, I wouldn’t get my hopes up, because I’m sure that when Trump is debriefed and read the riot act, that for the safety of his family and closest friends Trump will find it wise to keep his mouth shut. Although, as we all know making predictions about what Donald Trump will do, is only a fools game to play…but this fool, will not wait for any revelations as to tear down the walls of secrecy that is so badly needed to make our country great again.

Joe Tedesky

May 18, 2017 at 6:22 pm

I would add that it will be a very longtime before we ever see another U.S. politician speak of having detente with Russia.

Trump will take the bribe, resign the office to Pence…we know Donald would sell Ivanka to bahgdadi for 5 billion cool ones….war is coming

Joe Tedesky

May 19, 2017 at 1:28 am

Hey, you want some good news, tonight Rachel went hard after Pence. Is the ghost of Spiro Agnew in the air? Will yes boy Ryan be Gerald Ford, and Mitt be his Nelson? All Trump needs to do, is go on this trip, and come home to become the new Dick Nixon….but there again we’re talking about the Donald.

Sunset

May 18, 2017 at 4:10 pm

Yes, Mr. Parry, Trump would do us all and himself a big favor by ordering full transparency right away.

susan sunflower

May 18, 2017 at 4:40 pm

Yes, while he had no obligation to turn over his tax returns, refusing to do so is really biting him in the behind … part of the snow-ball effect including appearance of impropriety coupled with lack of transparency … (again, how very Clintonian)

tina

May 18, 2017 at 10:09 pm

what is your definition of trumpian?

Yuliy

May 18, 2017 at 9:42 pm

Unfortunately, Trump certainly doesn’t read Mr. Parry’s articles and no one in his circle is likely to give him that advice… So, how would he know that this would be a smart thing to do?

E Wright

May 19, 2017 at 2:56 am

I’d say Ivanka does and they are circling the wagons. The problem is that Trump doesn’t have an organization to support him. The small elite within Trump’s circle need to get to the labor unions – what’s left of them – to establish a nexus. That’s their only hope of building a counter-coup movement fast.

As for whether Trump is temperamentally suited to the White House -so what? I mean how about Truman? The main thing is that he should stick to his guns – that is what he was elected on.

exiled off mainstreet

May 18, 2017 at 4:02 pm

While I’m not as pessimistic on the outcome, I think that Trump should follow Mr. Parry’s advice. I think if it does go to impeachment or some sort of takedown, the reasons are so obviously phony that a chance of serious unrest with Trump supporters going after establishment figures is a distinct possibility. The Russian conspiracy theories, after all, are sedition and treason, and if they succeed somehow, many of those supporting Trump will take that view and react accordingly.

backwardsevolution

May 18, 2017 at 9:09 pm

exiled – yes, Trump supporters will be angry if this happens. No telling what they’ll do.

Brad Owen

May 19, 2017 at 4:52 am

That is why the Establishment treads lightly, where they would typically kill a million people in some foreign country subjected to their regime change policies. They know it were all the militia movements that voted Trump, and over a hundred million people owning three hundred million guns (sniper rifles all of them) is a serious obstacle to regime change desires. Their own lives are on the line in THIS regime change.

Libby

May 19, 2017 at 12:48 pm

While I am certainly no supporter of the alt-right or Trump, they need to adopt a counter-offensive including, for example, the memorandum signed by senior Justice officials and attorney generals, going back to George H, in which they protest the termination of the investigation of HRC’s emails by Comey. It could also include the Clinton Foundation, the lack of evidence behind the Russia accusations and, as Parry points out, and the cover-ups by the MSM and politicians, from the truth of the 2013 alleged sarin attack to the war in Iraq and etc.

As I write this however, the other question looms: Where would we go as a country after being ‘saved’ by the far-right?

Realist

May 19, 2017 at 8:19 am

What I don’t get is why the absolute, hair-on-fire imperative by the Deep State to immediately bring down Russia, and now immediately bring down Trump. Can’t they afford the rest of us just a few more years of life before they poison the earth with radioactive fallout and kill every living thing in a nuclear winter? Why the absolutely take-no-hostages, my-way-or-the-highway refusal to negotiate anything or work with either of them? Putin is more than reasonable and accommodating, but the formal response by Washington, even against the wishes and policy of the president (Obama or Trump), is always to ratchet up the sanctions, punishments and military actions in response to every concession by Russia. Trump was a world-famous “deal maker.” Surely, he would have met the Deep State more than halfway, if only to save face. They clearly don’t intend to allow him to escape their traps, and certainly not to govern. The collusion of the so-called “free press” in this witch hunt makes me want to vomit.

The insiders with all the clout have no desire to work with Trump, only to destroy him with a totally fabricated, transparent web of lies. Look, they want regime change across the board. Mullah Omar, Saddam Hussein, Muamar Gadaffi, Barshar al-Assad, and whoever runs Yemen, Sudan and Somalia were not enough for them. They had to nail Yanukovich as a prelude to getting Putin, and the icing on their cake will be toppling the elected president of the United States. Should this not disturb you even if you hate Trump because he is an egotist and a boor? Don’t expect there not to be consequences to you personally when a small coterie of insiders assimilate so much power onto themselves.

The Dark globalist corps and globalist bankers want to do what has never been done before…They want to rule the entire world…They arnt called Globalists for nothin….Trump is slowing the progress of that agenda…

The coming major war will crash the economy of the US…which is what they want…they are going to be condensing the power of 67 global kings down to 40 some…

us pawns are as likely to bear this disaster, as much as any kings or queens will..
.

Those of us who are of the real left who are a tiny minority of what is considered “left” at this time telling the truth about the lies that dominate U.S. foreign policy sounds good but is unlikely. Trump, I’m sure, has been told where he is not allowed to go. He knows very well, as I do, that the PTB will kill him and his entire family through covert means if they have to. So that’s not going to happen.

Skip Scott

May 20, 2017 at 6:18 am

Yeah Chris,

Many of us have talked about Trump’s “trip to the woodshed” previously. I think the same thing probably happened to Bernie. But you can’t fault us for wishful thinking. Someday, if we don’t get vaporized first, it will come to the point where the “we who are many” will wake up, march on Washington, and demand change. The MSM’s job of brainwashing us, is an attempt to postpone that day indefinitely.

I’m just getting familiar with caity johnstone, but so far I really like her stuff a lot.

Danny Weil

May 18, 2017 at 3:51 pm

Trump is a vain little man with no real power. His puppeteers have used him and his Madison Ave. con-job to once again send a Trojan Horse into the Whitehouse. They did it with Obama and the Hope and Change thing, they did it with Trump using the same.

The issue that should be front and center is the economic decline of the US and indeed, global capitalism. No impeachments, no hearings, no change of personalities can change the deteriorating stagnation of financial capitalism.

The oligarchs will wrestle the country into the mud in order to maintain their wealth and privilege. If this means war, they are ready.

There is no feasible opposition in the US to neo liberal policies. A Trump impeachment, which will never happen, would give us Pence.

It is important to remember that the Kabuki political scene is just a reflection of the decaying economic and moral state of the country.

exiled off mainstreet

May 18, 2017 at 4:03 pm

While I don’t fully agree with you, I don’t fully disagree either and agree with you about the oligarchs.

Erik G

May 18, 2017 at 8:03 pm

Yes, the doom of unregulated capitalism is clear, and Trump is an oligarch, although the least puppeteered.
The article makes very good points about the vulnerability and remaining opportunities of Trump.

Trump isn’t even the biggest holder of NYC real estate. Not exactly oligarchy material. As for unregulated capitalism, without the FED Goldman Sachs would have ended up on the slab next to Lehman. (Maybe Trimp too. )

His white house is apparently still “leaking like a sieve” and he’s still whining about the demands of the job — Jesus, he needs to pull on his big-boy pants …

It amuses me (if no one else) that he complains about the “biggest witchhunt in history” since that’s Bill and Hillary Clinton’s territory … along with that vast media versus right wing conspiracy … Playing the victim (particularly when there are quite real concerns) is not presidential, regardless of whether your last name is Trump or Clinton.

Oh, and our generals, to whom Trump transferred decision making, have apparently bombed a Syrian Army convoy in Southern Syria (where a recently rumored “US Invasion” had been planned) ….

The wheels are flying off this go-cart.

Sam F

May 19, 2017 at 5:26 am

The trip to Israel and KSA shows capitulation to US oligarchy and foreign influences upon US government.
If Trump had any chance of US reform he would embargo them and imprison their bribed congressmen.

Clearly Trump needs to take the initiative and use this remaining opportunity to secure his future, and our democracy. Strong executive action is needed, and would secure his reputation forever:

1. Investigate the mass media and congress and judiciary for influence of bribes and racketeering, while preparing the state universities to take over the mass media temporarily;
2. Declare a national emergency of corruption of democracy by economic power:
a. Purge and downsize the military and secret agencies;
b. Imprison most of Congress for foreign influence;
c. Replace nearly all of the judiciary for political party racketeering;
3. Turn the mass media over to the state universities;
4. Hold new congressional elections and demand constitutional amendments:
a. restrict funding of elections and mass media to limited individual contributions;
b. set up an administration to continuously investigate mass media and elections for unlawful influences;
c. require mass media to meet standards of balance in every administrative and activity area;
d. establish checks and balance within each branch and prevent power-grabs by the executive and judicial corruption;
5. Repeat the purges of Congress until we have those amendments;
6. Resume the use of regulated mass media companies (to avoid regulating the universities);
7. Resign from NATO, and end foreign wars and coups;
8. Declare an end to the emergency.

caseyf5

May 19, 2017 at 9:41 am

Hello susan sunflower, He doesn’t have “big-boy pants”! Does the phrase “rising to a level of incompetence” seem about right? In Herr Drumpf’s case he has so far exceeded the “Peter Principal” by leaps and bounds! This is the global record for the Peter Principal that should be in the Guinness Book of Records as it is unlikely to be bettered, for a long time, if at all!

Knomore

May 18, 2017 at 4:53 pm

Yes, Danny. The people who’ve been running this country, almost to a man, since they (the CIA and Deep State) murdered John F. Kennedy have all been vain little men. Only Carter rose slightly above — and they sent him back to his peanut farm. If the country needs to get anyone, my vote would be for the completely out-of-control CIA and and the malignant ciphers running the Deep State.

Trump may be far from ideal but he was legitimately elected by a large sector of Americans who’ve been sent out to pasture (or put in prison) by the equally ugly and perverse Clintons and BO who was no better and whose real story has yet to be told.

Bev

May 20, 2017 at 12:59 pm

Trump couped first. Trump stole the election via Kris Kobach’s #Crosscheck voter purging of legal voters while calling them illegal. To save Democracy and Voters’ Rights, Trump’s coup needs to be reported, because Trump’s “Voter Fraud” Commission is filled by people with links to white supremacy and even eugenics.

…The New York Times reported on Thursday. The commission’s formation follows Trump’s false claim that millions of people voted illegally in the 2016 election….

SPLC President Richard Cohen warned that Kobach’s appointment to the voting commission “shows that the commission itself will be fraudulent.”

“Kobach is a longtime lawyer for far-right extremist groups with ties to white nationalists and is a leader in the movement to suppress the votes of minorities,” Cohen said. “He is unfit to serve in this capacity, and his appointment is nothing less than an outrage.”
……

“As they dig into the viralizing of such stories, congressional investigations are probing not just Russia’s role but whether Moscow had help from the Trump campaign. Sources familiar with the investigations say they are probing two trump-linked organizations: Cambridge Analytica, a data-analytics company hired by the campaign that is partly owned by deep-pocketed Trump backer Robert Mercer; and Breitbart New, the right-wing website formerly run by Trump’s top political adviser Stephen Bannon.”

Robert Mercer: the big data billionaire waging war on mainstream media
With links to Donald Trump, Steve Bannon and Nigel Farage, the rightwing US computer scientist is at the heart of a multimillion-dollar propaganda network
Carole Cadwalladr

A shadowy global operation involving big data, billionaire friends of Trump and the disparate forces of the Leave campaign influenced the result of the EU referendum. As Britain heads to the polls again, is our electoral process still fit for purpose?
by Carole Cadwalladr

He called the company a central point in the right’s “propaganda machine”, a line I quoted in reference to its work for the Trump election campaign and the referendum Leave campaign. That led to the second article featuring Cambridge Analytica – as a central node in the alternative news and information network that I believed Robert Mercer and Steve Bannon, the key Trump aide who is now his chief strategist, were creating. I found evidence suggesting they were on a strategic mission to smash the mainstream media and replace it with one comprising alternative facts, fake history and rightwing propaganda.
………

And, Carole Cadwalladr reported on research by Jonathan Albright who found the hidden infrastructure of military grade propaganda used on the web in Election 2016.

I totally agree. The people have to come up with plan B or else we are doomed. The Superclass have it all and that includes Trump along with the corporate Dems and the corporate Republicans within the system of corporate capitalism. I am not a fan of Trump but it looks like, if this impeachment goes through, we will be backing into the lions den with no sense of how to save ourselves and the rest of humanity. The reality that we must understand is that we lost our democracy a long time ago and we have to organize ourselves outside of the 2 party system. Many liberals and progressives have good intentions when it comes to doing what is right for everyone but they are very short sighted because they are emotionally hung up with hating Trump. We need critical thinkers along with people of strong courage if we are going to get ourselves out of this political and economic mess.

Skip Scott

May 18, 2017 at 6:58 pm

Kirko-

You are right on! Structural change is our only hope. Bernie blew it by not going 3rd party with the Greens, making the MSM debates, and speaking truth to power to a wide audience. It may be he was threatened, or maybe he isn’t the man I thought he was a year ago. Somehow we have to change the dynamics of our political system. I fear it will take a nuclear war to wake people up, if we live through it.

i believe the wake-up call is goin to be the biggest financial disaster in US history…there will be immense pain for 90% of America’s citizens…that WILL wake us up…then things can change…

tina

May 18, 2017 at 9:40 pm

you speak to people like my dad. He is 78 and just does not care about his grandchildren’s or anyone’s future. He is a vet, but he told me the other day, If benes get cut, so what , it will only effect future vets, not him. The old, ” I’ve got mine and screw the rest of you”. My dad, the vet, voted for Trump, I love my dad, yet I detest him for that vote. My dad just loves it everyday when the stock market goes up. I am ashamed, but my dad is your trump voter. But when the stock market crashes again, which at some point it will, My dad will blame those unpatriotic americans who never wore a uniform, namely , anyone who is not republican.

Kiza

May 19, 2017 at 6:22 am

Gee Tina, you are just another lost-in-space lefty, detesting your dad just because of his politics!? How does Derek’s or your dad’s attitude change the reality that US is in a deeply corrupt pickle? Would it be any different if your dad was willing to sacrifice his vet pension and benefits for the benefit of the future vets? All US vets have been just muscle men for some US corporation or other, as Smedley Butler wrote. No wonder your dad is bitter now, if your view of his attitude is even true and not viewed through the glasses of your own extremist politics.

You talk about future, but US has no future as it is now: US is a crash waiting to happen.

Bev

May 20, 2017 at 1:40 pm

People need 3 things for survival, justice and a future for all our kids:

2 Money
A Debt-Free Public Money, not bankers’ loans as circulating currency. If your nation’s money is bankers’ loan debt, you can never get out of debt. Follow http://www.monetary.org/ The American Monetary Institute

Derek, the American Monetary Institute shows that you can prevent an economic collapse if you can elect the best leaders to do the correct problem solving:

For serious problems, for survival, we have to try workable solutions. Six times in America’s history we have had brave presidents who took money creation away from bankers, among them were Washington, Lincoln and Kennedy. We must support and PROTECT all leaders who would do this again for the common good.

The banking disaster, created and facilitated by false economic and monetary ideas, used by some very bad people, actually poses a real danger to the survival of the species. We must transform the ongoing disaster into an opportunity to achieve real and lasting monetary reforms for mankind.

Bev

May 20, 2017 at 2:30 pm

In order for people to regain their Democracy, and a Public Money to have the enormous funding for an Emergency Jobs plan to mitigate Climate Catastrophe, we need the Truth and a Free Press.

This means we the people need 4 things to problem solve for survival, and our kids futures.

And, the first need is real factual evidence, real problem-solving knowledge, and brave truth from journalists, scientists, academics, and historians. We need more Journalist like Robert Perry who provides brave reporting.

Robert, what if a more recent truth is not enough, what if we need a larger truth to jump start these 4 things we need to survive?

If Trump is ousted on the basis that somehow he was elected because he conspired with the Russians to steal the election, will Clinton have a case in law for a re-run of the election? Who knows, we might yet see this old boot in the White House and when it comes to war mongering, she will make Trump seem like an amateur!

Bart in Virginia

May 19, 2017 at 3:16 pm

No mulligans allowed. After a Trump removal you will get TupPence and “God’s law”, which will amount to an unwritten codicil to the Establishment Clause.

I don’t agree that he is a puppet of anyone–that’s his problem–he doesn’t seem to understand the pecking order and that’s why he is assailed on all sides. Fortunately for his enemies he seems unable to counter their moves–I’m guessing he did not expect such overwhelming rejection by the power-elites.

Paul G.

May 19, 2017 at 9:50 am

I don’t really think Trump is a puppet; he is a puppeteer himself. He is not part of the Kochtupus but as a billionaire oligarch himself-with spectacularly poor business management skills; he has the same interests and attitudes, on steroids ; and his ideology is basically libertarian to the extreme.

This “Russia thing” has gotten to the point of the theatre of the absurd with the latest Time cover featuring St. Basil’s Cathedral domes and Kremlin walls growing out of the White House. The most important point is the impeachment effort is not focused on his most very real issue; which is his refusal to divest and his extensive financial ties to foreign interests. Just locally the Trump Hotel, Old Post Office building, is doing extra well as foreign dignitaries and desperate corporados book stays there to curry his favor. This to the dismay of other DC hotels and restaurants. The Donald has gone so far as to entertain foreign officials personally there (see: http://fortune.com/2017/03/05/trump-hotel-washington-dc/), thumbing his nose at any concept of conflict of interest and the emoluments clause. In his eyes he can do no wrong just like “grabbing pussy” and no one can touch him; a delusion he will come to regret.

His alleged demanding loyalty from the now ex FBI director, in a dialogue right out of Mafia lore, constitutes blatant obstruction of justice and violates the independence of the Federal investigative force.

I think asking Trump to start telling the truth is a bit naive. Why do you suppose no one tells the truth who is either in government or the government controlled media? Part of it is the culture of the elites–you don’t rat on friends or bite the hand that feeds you. The people in power are your people and you are in the position because you serve at their pleasure. If you fuck with them though you are going to have to pay a big price–if Trump did do what you think he ought to do who is going to protect him and his family from paying the ultimate consequence? Is Trump going to call the police? Is the Secret Service going to protect him? No one speaks the truth in Washington–this is an Imperial capitol not the capitol of a democratic Republic. This is not because people in ruling positions are “bad” it’s just the way the system operates whether it is the USSR, Nazi Germany or the Roman Empire there is a pecking order and you follow–end of story. Trump very lightly told some truths in his campaign and the Deep State is after him because even one shred of truth could bring the whole thing down because it this Deep State is deeply divided into a number of factions that are being held together with duct tape–any serious turbulence and the whole thing could come apart.

Thus Trump must dance to the tune being played. His dance steps are confused because the tune keeps changing time signatures. I think he is doomed unless some outer event interferes. I haven’t seen a President as hated by the ruling elites this much, ever. Roosevelt was hated and survived one coup attempt but not the second (the forced selection of Truman), JFK did not survive nor did his soon to be President brother, nor did Nixon, nor did Carter. If Trump does survive it won’t be through telling the truth but through the armed force of dissidents in the military/intel community. We’re in for a bumpy night.